Freed From Chains
by SlowlyDyingBut NoWorries
Summary: Eleven year old Lucy runs away from home and soon meets Gajeel and Juvia, she is drawn to them and so Lucy ends up being travelling with them and joining Phantom Lord, how would this change her and how different would her life be? Rated T for language, may change to M in later chapters. Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima not me so no complaints about that please.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

 **Lucy P.O.V**

I was sat on a bench in Hargeon, I wasn't sure how long it had been since I ran away, it must have been at least a few months because the locals had stopped giving me funny looks, as if asking why an eleven year old girl was out alone and why she was taking on way too many jobs. I shivered, it was cold in Hargeon and winter had no intention of leaving any time soon, it didn't help that none of the money I earned on jobs went towards new clothes, so I was sat in a knee high sleeveless pink dress and a pair of buckle up leather shoes. I clutched my keys close to my chest, they pulsated warmly in response. I looked down at them, Aquarius, Cancer and Taurus were from my mother, Capricorn, Sagittarius, Virgo and Scorpio were all earned on numerous different jobs, Leo and Aries I had won after seeing a mage called Karen mistreating them and challenged her to a fight and Gemini I had been given after saving a girl from a gang of men after her. I shifted my gold keys over on my key ring to look at my silver ones, they were the reason that I had no money, Plue, Lyra, Crux and Horologium. I loved them all. However they couldn't make the money I desperately needed appear, so it seemed as though I would be sleeping under the stars, which was something I was at ease with, having done it often enough. I hooked my keys back onto my belt, next to my whip, Fleuve dé'toiles, it had been a gift from Virgo after I had summoned her, a gift I was very grateful for. I stood up and walked towards my sleeping hill, as I now called it.

It didn't take long for me to reach the top of the hill, I slouched against the trunk of the one standing tree on the hill. Stars were sparkling merrily in the darkness of the night sky, I stared up at them and softly named each constellation I could see under my breath. The night was quiet and still and I started to drift off to sleep when I heard a twig snap and someone cursing quietly under their breath, followed by multiple twigs snapping and a lot of cursing. I scrambled up the tree for a better view, holding my breath and trying to be as silent as possible. I grabbed my whip but didn't dare to open it, for fear the light would catch the attention of whoever was there.

"Gajeel, Juvia swears that someone was up here," a female voice said, she sounded as though she was my age.

"I can tell, their scent is everywhere," the male voice replied...wait, scent? Could he smell me? I clicked my whip hesitantly, not allowing any light to show.

"What was that?" the male voice said.

"Gajeel, you forget that Juvia's ears aren't as good as yours,"

"I heard something up there, the scent seems to get quite strong too," the male, presumably Gajeel, said starting to climb the tree, the female sighed and followed him, there was only one option now. I couldn't really get a good shot at them, it was too dark, but I was certain I could capture them...Now! I released my glowing whip and it split off and captured them, it's bright glow illuminating the entire hill. I hung them over the side of the tree, looking down at them from the top branch, where I was perched.

"What do you want?" I asked, trying to be menacing, but not succeeding in doing so.

"First off, what is this thing?" Gajeel asked squirming so much I had to tighten must hold. This was my first chance to get a good look at them, Gajeel seemed to be about my age, but rather tall, with lots of piercings and shaggy black hair and blood red eyes, the girl had pale skin, dark blue eyes, that matched her shoulder length blue hair that curled at the bottom and she held a pink umbrella in her hand.

"It's my whip Fleuve dé'toiles, now answer my question," I replied.

"Gajeel and Juvia just wanted directions, nobody was out but Juvia saw you up here and thought you would be able to help us," the blunette said, is _she_ Juvia, or does she just have a weird obsession with someone called Juvia?

"What do you want to know?" I asked, loosening my whip slightly.

"Where are we and where is the nearest forest?" Gajeel butted in.

"You are in Hargeon and the nearest forest is Kamikawa," I said. They looked at me blankly.

"Where is it?" the blunette asked.

"Could you let us go first though, Juvia is really dizzy," the girl added. I released them roughly but they both managed to land on their feet.

"I'm Gajeel and this is Juvia," Gajeel said, pointing to the blunette. She talks in the third person, weird, although who am I to judge?

"And you are?" Juvia said curiously.

"Lucy," I replied, "So then, to get to Kamikawa, you head east towards the coast, head through the valley, cross the Kamikawa river and then you will have reached the forest. Don't eat the berries there, or look the wolves in the eye, now good night," I said, retracting my whip and slumping back against the tree truck.

"Lucy, don't you have anywhere to go?" Juvia asked softly, I heard Gajeel groan.

"Not specifically," I replied curtly.

"Why not come with us then, we could use some more company and you seem nice," she said.

"How do I know I can trust you?" I asked. Juvia held out her pinkie finger her face still solemn but a small smile graced her lips.

"Gajeel, Juvia wants you to come over here as well," Juvia said.

"Damn it rain woman, ever since you saw the sun, you have been way too nice," Gajeel groaned, however he still came over and extended his pinkie. I looped my fingers around both of their's.

"I guess I'll tag along if it isn't too much trouble," I said softly. With that we left. It was odd, I barely knew these people but I had given them my trust, there was just something so...different about them. It made me want to be their friend.

"Oh Lucy, Juvia wants to know what sort of magic you use," Juvia said.

"How do you..." I said, only to be interrupted by Juvia.

"No non-mage would have something like that whip of yours,"

"I'm a Celestial Spirit Mage," I said.

"Juvia thinks that is amazing , Juvia is a Water Mage and Gajeel is having a sulk so he won't tell you what he is, Juvia will though. Gajeel is an Iron Dragon Slayer,"

"Wow, that's so cool," I replied, I had never met other mages before, just dull company associates and disgusting potential fiance's.

We walked in silence for a while but somehow Gajeel and Juvia ended up getting into an argument, it wasn't particularly angry or spiteful, oddly it just made me feel more at ease. Then I realised, I'd made friends, at least I was pretty sure I had, so I never wanted to lose them. I'd stay with them forever...


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

 **Lucy P.O.V**

I had been travelling with Gajeel and Juvia for almost a month, we had stopped off at Kamikawa to gather food, water and iron for Gajeel, apparently drayonslayers eat their element, I was learning so much from being around Gajeel and Juvia. I started daydreaming and managed to walk right into Juvia.

"Ouch, sorry Juvia," I groaned. Juvia smiled.

"It's okay Lucy," Juvia said. Juvia seemed to be getting cheerier by the day. Gajeel had told me her water magic used to be out of control and so rain followed her everywhere, even when they first met it was constantly raining, however one day Juvia saw a photograph on a magazine cover of people dancing and smiling on the beach in the sun. This somehow motivated her to learn to better control her magic, Gajeel said he didn't really understand it and to be honest neither did I but I was happy for Juvia even if I didn't understand how a picture motivated her to control her magic or why the sun seemed to mean so much to her.

We continued walking, Gajeel was slightly ahead of us but not so far that we couldn't see him.

"This looks like a good place to stop, right?" Gajeel said, pointing to a clearing a few meters to the right of us.

"Why are we stopping?" I asked, confused as it was still the middle of the day.

"Me and Juvia need to train, if you want to you can as well," Gajeel replied gruffly. I nodded, we did need to train if we wanted to improve our magic, and I was definitely too afraid to go against what Gajeel said. We walked though the brush and into the clearing, placing our belongings against the trunk of a nearby tree. I shut my eyes and inhaled the cool damp scent of the forest, if was my new favourite smell, a constant reminder of my freedom.

"Lucy," Juvia addressed me, I turned to face her, "How does that whip of yours work?" I unhooked it from my belt.

"Watch," I said, clicking it open and allowing glowing tendrils to snake out of it. I then flicked it towards the trees, gripping them tightly.

"Okay?" Juvia said, sounding rather confused. I scrunched my nose, trying to think of the best way to explain it.

"My whip is from the celestial spirit world, it is stronger than other whips and a lot of other weapons, it can extend across large distances, split off into different sections, and break things," I said, pulling my whip as tightly as I could, causing small cracks to form up the tree trunk, "It is usually inescapable, however the strength of the whip depends on the strength of the wielder, if I am weakened so is my weapon, and so if you fight against it when we are weakened you will probably escape our clutches," I finished, very proud of myself, I thought I had explained it very well.

"Juvia thinks that's amazing, but would your whip be able to hold onto someone if they were made entirely out of water?" Juvia asked.

"I dont think so, but why do you ask?" I replied.

"It's something Juvia has been working on recently, she can't quite do it but she is close," Juvia said. Gajeel turned to us from the other side of the glade.

"Bunny girl, rain woman, get over here, we need to start training," Gajeel shouted over to us impatiently.

"Bunny...?" I questioned before Juvia cut me off.

"Don't worry, Gajeel gives everyone nicknames, Juvia is surprised he took so long to make one up for you though," Juvia said, tugging me along behind her as she ran toward Gajeel.

"Now then," Gajeel said, "I think we should stay here for a couple of months to train, I don't know about you bunny girl, but me and rain woman have only been doing jobs for the last few months, no training involved, so we need to polish up our skills,"

"Same here, although I have been working on a more advanced spell in my spare time," I replied, really all my time off a job was spare.

"Ok, Juvia agrees we should practice then, maybe join a guild after that," Juvia said with stars in her eyes.

"Rain woman, guilds are for when we are actually strong enough to be S-Class, remember," Gajeel said disapprovingly. I nodded along, I didn't really care much about joining a guild, keeping my freedom was enough.

"What should we start with?" I asked.

"Juvia thinks a demonstration of our powers would be good, we need to know our current strength," Juvia said. Gajeel grunted, I had a feeling he just wanted to get to the fighting part of training.

"Juvia shall go first," Juvia turned on her heel, and shot a swirling ball of water towards a tree, slicing it in half. She was amazing!

Gajeel then turned his arm into a club and whacked another tree over, he seemed to be a bit caught up in thought as he chose to knock over one of the slightly larger trees in the glade causing a resounding bang to echo throughout the forest. Finally it was my turn.

"Is it alright if I try the new spell I've been working on?" Juvia nodded. I turned to the tree and tried to focus, I had been working on Star Dress with Sagittarius as he was also helping me with my marksmanship at the time I suggested learning the spell, so he agreed to help me. I reached for his key and pressed it to my heart, I could feel the thrum of his magical aura and reached out to it with my own, I had to time this perfectly, I felt the connection.

"Star Dress: Saggitarius Form," I whispered. I could already feel the drain on my magical energy, but it was finally working! I could feel my clothes changing and my body and mind growing sharper. My eyes trained themselves on the tree in front of me and my hands tightened around the bow, shooting arrow after arrow into the centre of the tree, after a short while I could feel my magical energy growing painfully low so I let the Star Dress fall away, it wasn't really the best way to undo the Star Dress but I was too tired to remember how to do it correctly.

"That's so cool Lucy!" Juvia shouted, wrapping me in a hug, which I needed, I slumped against her.

"Well then, since some of us seem too tired to continue, why don't we work on physical fitness tomorrow, instead of magic," Gajeel said, directing his statement at me. At least he was being considerate.

 **Timeskip...**

You know it's funny how quickly time passes when you are with the people you love, two months that were supposed to be spent training somehow turned into two years. My thirteenth birthday wasn't a particularly special one, neither was my twelfth, or any of Gajeel and Juvia's, but they were the best birthdays I have ever had. Juvia had finally worn Gajeel down and so we were going to join a guild. Gajeel said we were strong enough to beat down any of those S-Class motherfuckers. Gajeel was very foul mouthed but since he'd rubbed of on me, I was as well, although nowhere near as bad as him, although sometimes I could be, I just found the idea of Jude Heartfilia's perfect little daughter swearing like a sailor hilarious. Juvia was probably the most polite out of all of us but still pissing her off was a terrible idea, she still knew how to string together a sentence of expletives and a Water Nebula hitting you at full force while she has gone full rage mode may be the last thing you see.

We all had chosen to join Phantom Lord, it was probably the only guild that could handle us, all guilds except Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord would never be able to handle our destructiveness and we'd ruin Fairy Tail because of the fact we didn't really care about anything but each other. So Phantom Lord it was.

We were standing outside the guild hall silently, waiting until we were all ready, after a few seconds we all nodded and pushed the doors open. Phantom Lord didn't seem like a particularly bright or sunny guild, but we weren't particularly bright sunny people for anyone but each other. After the years we had spent together, Juvia had become more grounded, emotionally and apart from the third person thing she was quite normal, still very sweet toward me and Gajeel however, but very guarded toward strangers. Gajeel was definitely more resentful of humanity, and violent since he was now more sure he could win a fight but inside I knew he was just a big fluffy teddy bear really. Although if I ever said that he might concuss me, so I'm careful. I have probably changed the most, with Gajeel and Juvia around I'm a lot less worried about being dragged back home, so I'm a lot more relaxed and definitely more adventurous yet I have definitely been influenced by Gajeel and Juvia, they also made sure any airs and graces I had left were erased unless needed for some odd reason, they also made me a lot more hot-headed, short-tempered and for some reason being around Juvia had made me gain a love of water and swimming.

A few heads turned in our direction, but then turned back, eyes rolling and Sith escaping some lips, they were just writing us off as kids, I mean we were but we were more than that! Gajeel walked up to the bar.

"Hey, we need to speak to your Master, about joining this guild, where is he?" The man at the bar looked a bit surprised but then just started laughing. I could see Gajeel's temper running thin so I walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, I was swiftly followed by Juvia who had also noticed Gajeel was getting annoyed.

"Seriously kids, you could never even dream of getting into a guild like this, just drag your worthless crying selves back to your parents!" I was pissed off, really pissed off, but I managed to just about keep a handle on it, as did Juvia, but Gajeel was less successful.

"What did you just say to me you old bastard," he snarled, red eyes flashing menacingly, "I think you'll find that me and both my friends are capable of grinding you to pulp without even breaking a sweat," Gajeel looked ready to kill him but he managed to content himself with just grabbing the man's collar and flinging him across the room. Every pair of eyes were now trained on us.

"Juvia would like to know where your Master is," Juvia added, still trying to salvage the situation.

"I'm right here," a commanding voice echoed through the main hall "Now I hear some mages wish to join our guild, Darren get the stamp," The man Gajeel had thrown across the room scrambled to his feet and scurried behind the bar to retrieve a stamp and some ink.

"Where do you want it?" Darren asked Juvia, Juvia looked at the man, who seemed slightly too eager to touch her, so she simply extended her left arm and pointed to her shoulder.

"Juvia wants to know if you have any colours other than black,"

"Sorry sweetheart, no one really cares what colour it is so we stick with black," after hearing the perversion in his voice on the word sweetheart, she shook her head and allowed herself to be stamped. Next was my turn, I didn't care much about my guild mark, I just didn't want the filthy pervs' hands on me longer than they had to be so I too extended my left arm and pointed to the same place Juvia had. The black ink seeped into my skin, I was part of a guild. Next was Gajeel, I didn't really pay much attention to him as I walked towards Juvia, but a few moments later he arrived next to me with a black guild mark in the same place as me and Juvia.

I looked towards Darren, only to see him lying on the floor unconscious, I looked at Gajeel only to receive a smile. Phantom Lord was definitely going to need a new bartender. But this was going to be one hell of a ride!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

 **Lucy P.O.V**

Me, Juvia and Gajeel had just got back from a job and we were filthy. It had been a simple monster killing job, yet the people putting it out failed to mention that we were going to be going against, three monsters that created a gas that stank of death and shit, two mud monsters and four that shot sticky black slime, safe to say we didn't just look bad enough to terrify a few people into fleeing in the opposite direction we'd also caused a few people to pass out from our stench. Out of all of us Gajeel with his dragon slayer nose was suffering the most but he managed to keep cool for the most part. When we finally got to the guild many heads turned our way questioningly.

"Bastards didn't put a monster description on the job again," Gajeel said, and that was enough for everyone. You see the people we took a job from have done this many times before, so we were prepared for most eventualities...but not for that, they have recieved multiple...warnings, but after being gassed and coated in mud and slime we decided we needed to have a conversation with them, after taking it up with Master of course, but as he's had many guild members put out of commission due to them we were sure he wouldn't object.

Swiftly we climbed the stairs to Master's office and entered. He took one look at us and looked extremely angry.

"James brothers again?" he asked.

"Yeah, can we have a...word with them Master...teach them a lesson?" I asked.

"They certainly need something done about them, their tricks at becoming very inconvenient and threatening to us, first get cleaned up, you don't want to go to them like that," Master Jose said.

"Juvia can take care of that Master," Juvia said...wait...no!

"Water lock," We were swept into an enormous orb of water almost immediately.

"Take it outside Juvia, don't mess up my office," Master shouted, his voice odd and echoey outside the water. Luckily due to swimming lessons with Juvia I was still concious, she had made sure I could hold my breath for ages.

The orb floated out the door, down the stairs and outside the guild, Juvia was gaining more control over movement of her spells by the day. As soon as we were a safe distance from the guild Juvia released us the water and both me and Gajeel gasped, while Juvia stared at us, a smile twitching at the corner of her lips. At least we were clean and I couldn't smell any traces of the gas.

"Give us some warning next time Juvia," I said.

"Juvia did," was the only answer I got, and it had always been the answer every time she found the need to sweep us into one of her spells, why did I even bother trying to tell her what was right any more.

"Gajeel do we still stink?" I asked, his nose would be able to tell whether or not we did better than mine.

"It's barely noticeable bunny girl," Gajeel said. Seriously what does Juvia do to get us so clean, I'll have to ask her some time...

"Now let's get going," Juvia interrupted my thoughts.

"Where was it they lived again?" I asked.

"Magnolia," Juvia shouted over her shoulder as she walked away. I sped up to catch her, as did Gajeel. We carried on walking, thinking of very creative ways to torture the James brothers and bouncing our ideas off each other until we reached the train station. I looked, up at the timetable, a train was due in five minutes to Magnolia.

"Look," I said pointing up at the timetable, "the 3:30, East Fiorian Railway Service to Magnolia, we only have five minutes to wait," the station was empty and so we settled down on a bench to wait.

 _Ding Dong "We are sorry to announce that the... 3:30 East Fiorian Railway Service to Magnolia...has been delayed by one hour due to engine issues, we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused to your journey,"_

"What the fuck?" Me and Gajeel shouted in unison, how did trains manage to get delayed with five minutes until they were due and just as we got to the station and how the hell were we supposed to spend an hour waiting, there is literally nothing fun to do except... I have an idea...

"Hey Gajeel, wanna fight?" I asked.

"If it makes an hour go faster... what do you say rain woman?" Gajeel said.

"Juvia will join, but we can't break anything, you know what Master did last time," we all shuddered, we don't talk about last time.

"Rules are, don't break shit, don't kill each other and make the hour speed up, and not much magic, we want to save it for later," Gajeel said with a grin.

"3, 2, 1, GO!" I shouted, holding platform 1, while Gajeel took platform 2 and Juvia platform 3.

"Ready to be destroyed," I shouted.

"Ready to destroy you if that's what you mean bunny girl," Gajeel shouted.

"Juvia is ready to beat you both," Juvia shouted. With that we attacked, minor attacks aimed very well as not to destroy anything but as that got boring after a while we gathered our weapons and started fighting with them instead, which was a lot more fun. My celestial whip cracked against Juvia's water cane and Gajeel's swords crashed against our weapons. We didn't make any progress in beating each other but we were having fun.

Eventually we heard the sound of a train coming toward the station and we snapped to attention, it pulled into the station and we boarded. After scouring the the train we found an empty carriage and settled into it.

"I hate trains," Gajeel muttered as it set off. We sat in a comfortable silence until we heard a group of people very loudly coming down the hall.

"Lucy, are they going to come in here?" Juvia asked.

"I think this was the last empty carriage so probably," I replied looking out of the window and watching as the world went by in a blur.

"Juvia doesn't want to have to share a carriage with strangers," Juvia said.

"Sorry rain woman, if they come in we can't stop them," Gajeel said, his motion sickness was starting to get to him a bit.

The door was opened and standing in the doorway were three Fairy Tail mages, a pinkette who looked ready to vomit, a red head in armour and a black haired boy who looked ready to punch the pink haired one.

"I apologise for our intrusion but all other carriages are full, may we sit," the red head asked.

"Sure," I said. Juvia shot me a filthy look, I didn't think she liked them, and Gajeel glared at me despite his nausea. Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord don't really have a good history, but they were just sharing a carriage with us so I didn't really care but it wasn't as though I actually wanted to be stuck in a confined space with some fairies.

"I hate trains," the pinkette muttered. I looked over to Gajeel who was keeping it together but looked like he was about to vomit by Gajeel standards.

"Hey Gajeel," I said, getting his attention, "Are you gonna, you know, puke?" Gajeel rolled his eyes and this comment gained the attention of the three opposite us.

"Your friend has motion sickness?" The red head asked. I nodded in reply. "As does Natsu," she said gesturing to the pinkette. Gajeel nudged me and I swapped places with him just in time for him to vomit out the window. At that Natsu turned even greener. I laughed a little at the sight of Gajeel looking so helpless.

"What's so funny bunny girl?" Gajeel said menacingly.

"You, the big scary monster is beaten by transport," I spluttered out before descending into a fit of laughter. Gajeel glared at me before picking me up and hanging me by the back of my shirt from the ceiling light. I squirmed while Gajeel laughed and Juvia tried not to.

"Is it fair to leave her up there?" the black haired boy interjected.

"Juvia thinks that Lucy won't mind, after all we've ended up doing much worse," Juvia said softly, more to herself than anyone else.

"I do mind, Juvia! I don't like it up here! Gajeel get me down or I'm smashing the light off and Master will make us pay, like he did last time," we all shivered in unison.

"I don't think that breaking things is appropriate," the red head said.

"Who are you to say not to break stuff Erza," the black haired boy said, strangely enough he was no longer wearing a shirt.

"Gray! CLOTHES NOW!" the Erza screamed, slamming her fist onto the top of his head. I sighed and decided to watch the scene below unfold. After Gray had found his shirt and Erza had stopped panicking the ride settled into a comfortable silence. I swung my legs back and forth and waited for our stop to be called.

 _Ding Dong "We have now arrived at Magnolia Station, please mind the gap as you exit the train,"_

All of us exited the train, I noticed Natsu kissing the ground and rolled my eyes, Fairy Tail mages seemed so... I wasn't sure but I didn't like them one bit, sharing a carriage was on thing but I hoped to not have to run into them again.

"What's the address Juvia?" I asked.

"116 Marigold Drive," Juvia replied.

"How do you know this anyway?" I asked.

"Juvia...has her ways..." Juvia said creepily, how could one person manage to scare me in four words, well that's Juvia for you. With that we set off behind her, it had been one shitty day. The mages we had encountered on the train had just annoyed me more, perhaps we had encountered our future enemies. However that was unimportant currently so I pushed those thoughts aside to make way for the plans we'd made on how we were going to get revenge on the James brothers.

I would make sure they never crossed Phantom Lord again...


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3**

 **Lucy P.O.V**

My hand was raised above the handle of the James brothers house, the handle looked to be made of solid gold which made sense, the brothers made a lot of money with their shady dealings but the rewards they offered for their jobs were just too good to pass up. Unlike a lot of people in the same business they actually paid up which was the one reason Phantom Lord had allowed them to continue their business for so long. Now we had simply had enough, however our job was simply the last straw, they had done much more before to deserve what was coming to them.

I turned the handle, it clicked resoundingly, filling the eerie silence that had settled over us since we had entered the building. The door swung open and we were greeted by the sight of the James brothers. Clark, Matt and Al. Experts in conning, back alley deals and making money.

"Welcome, welcome, it is so good to see some of our lovely friends from Phantom Lord, please do take a seat," Clark said, sweating slightly, Gajeel hit him around the head with an iron club, unfortunately he didn't lose consciousness, he only looked slightly dazed.

"Now why would you go and do something like that, we are all friends here," Matt said, as though we couldn't see the shadows creeping towards us slowly. We all dodged the attack swiftly.

"We are here to show you what happens when you mess with Phantom Lord, you have been allowed to carry on unpunished for far too long, now we shall make up for our short sightedness," Juvia said, she was becoming more menacing, Juvia might be a sweetheart but she was still a force to be reckoned with. She wanted revenge just as much as me and Gajeel, if not more, she just had a better handle on her emotions.

"Now then I'm sure we can manage to be civil about this," Al added. I grabbed my whip from my belt, I wanted to get revenge without help from my spirits, as a celestial wizard sometimes I felt like I was hiding behind my spirits, so getting revenge with my own two hands would be all the more satisfying, also my revenge was not something my spirits should have had to be bothered with.

A shadow spear shot towards me, I simply redirected it with my whip back to its' sender, who happened to be Clark. Gajeel and Juvia smiled at me, I guess they thought that was a good move, as it had pinned Clark against the wall by his shoulder which was bleeding profusely. He underestimated my reflexes, bad move.

Suddenly the room became darker, shadows crept around us and shadow monsters few from the murky depths of what used to be a floor protecting their masters. I looked to my friends.

"I guess this is going to be more fun than we thought," Gajeel said.

"Yeah, definitely more than we anticipated," I replied with a smile. Juvia smiled as well, her eyes focused and body poised to spring into action.

With that we leapt into the fight. Letting our bodies go through the familiar actions, slicing the shadows to pieces and avoiding their attacks which usually consisted of what I assumed to be black toxic smoke and shadow weapons, which had to be avoided under all circumstances, if you were not a shadow mage or something along those lines and were cut by one, to give the short explanation, you would die, there is a long winded one to do with magical balance and the shadows poisoning you and corrupting your magic but I can't really be bothered to give it, it is way to complicated to be an explanation that is any way fun to give.

After fighting off all the shadow minions we were faced with three equally exhausted James brothers, Clark was still pinned to the wall and Gajeel decided he might as well finish the job by pinning Al and Matt to the wall as well with some of his own weapons. Once he'd finished Juvia and I bombarded them with our magic until they lost consciousness.

"Is that it?" I said, once they summoned those shadow minions I thought we'd have more of a fun fight than first anticipated but it seemed that summoning them they'd pretty much exhausted themselves...how boring, I'd hoped they'd put up more of a fight so we could get them back for all the dud jobs they had given our guild and us as well as all the guild members they had hurt in the process.

Just so they'd think twice before visiting our guild again I looked to Juvia.

"Hey should we leave them a note about why we visited, we didn't really get time to tell them properly, about the missions and stuff," I said.

"Juvia thinks they'll figure it out," Juvia said, "but just in case..." Juvia concentrated on the blood seeping from the brothers shoulders, ankles and various other cuts and it started to rise.

DON'T MESS WITH US AGAIN. It spelt out a little sloppily but it was a very impressive feat.

"I didn't know you could do that Juvia! It's so cool!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"Juvia has been working on manipulating substances that contain water as well as just water for a little while," Juvia said with a smile.

"Nice trick rain woman," Gajeel said, "We'd better head out now though, it's got pretty late," I looked to the window...it was dark!?

How the hell did night fall just like that! I guess those shadow monsters took up more of our time than we thought...not to mention that it took ages for us to get to the James brothers house and also we'd managed to get lost...which may have been my fault. So I guess when you thought about it, the time of day did make sense.

With that we headed out into the darkness. My stomach growled...I was starving. Gajeel looked over to me.

"You hungry bunny girl?" He asked, prize for stating the obvious...

"No shit, we haven't eaten all day, did you think I snuck something in without you noticing or are you just that stupid?" I replied snarkily, I was tired, hungry, sore and really not in the mood for Gajeel to act stupid. I could see Gajeel grind his teeth together while glaring angrily at me, managing to restrain himself...quite impressive.

"Well then we'd better get home and get something to..." Juvia said before stopping herself horror contorting her face. "What!?" she shrieked.

"Juvia what is it?" I asked.

"The last train back home left 10 minutes ago...we have to walk home.." Juvia said.

"What!?" Gajeel and I shouted in unison.

"We don't know Magnolia so Juvia doubts we'll find somewhere to stay for the night, Juvia doubts we'll find a place to eat either..." Juvia said. I just sighed.

"Fine, the quicker we get home the quicker we can eat, which direction is home?" I replied. Juvia looked up in confusion.

"Juvia thought you knew Lucy," Juvia cried out.

"No! Out of all of us you are the best at memorizing directions, why the hell would me and my crappy navigational skills know how to get to anything,' I shouted.

"Juvia never needed to memorize them because we always caught the train, if you and your crappy navigational skills hadn't gone against Juvias' directions and gotten us lost multiple times we would have been able to catch the train anyways!" Juvia protested.

"Why are you pinning this on me!?" I screamed.

"So what are we planning to do next, after all we can't just stand here for the rest of the night," Gajeel said, somehow managing to ignore the fact that Juvia and I were on the verge of fighting.

"Stop trying to sound reasonable dumbass!" I shouted. Hunger, exhaustion and being lost were really not doing wonders for my temper. I looked back to Juvia who appeared to be just as angry as I was, I think it was because she didn't know how to get back to the guild, I suppose her uncanny navigational skills being put into the question was frustrating for her. I was also sure that she'd memorize the location of the guild perfectly when we got back however at that moment in time I wasn't really thinking logically so I just started a fight..not really a good plan but I needed to vent somehow...

"Bunny girl... you are walking on very thin ice..." Gajeel said menacingly, but I didn't care, the logical part of me was screaming 'DO YOU WANT TO DIE!?' But that was drowned out fairly quickly.

"Really?" I replied mockingly.

"Juvia is not very happy with Lucy... Juvia thinks that Lucy shouldn't question Juvia," Juvia said a sinister expression on her face.

"What makes you so great at knowing where people live anyway, you don't even know where the guild is so don't get all high and mighty!" I shouted.

"Juvia high and mighty, Lucy is by far the most spoilt and snobby out of anyone Juvia has met!" Juvia then went on to imitate me in a very unflattering way, listing all the times I'd used my airs and graces, been confused by things I had never seen before and the time there had been rats in our room at an inn we had paid to stay in...why couldn't they get rid of some rats! We all then just started screaming at each other and throwing various magical attacks at each other.

"Wait..." Juvia said... "...There's... there's a signpost... right there," I looked up and sure enough there was... we'd been standing next to it the entire time. With that we set off on the long walk home in silence, none of us wanting to point out how stupid we'd been or the fact we'd essentially got into a fight for no reason... maybe the situation would be one of those stories you could tell at parties years later that would end up being funny... I didn't really think so.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4**

 **Author Note:** Sorry for the wait, my anxiety has decided it wanted to get a whole lot worse so I'm physically and emotionally drained, I've gained back some motivation so I'm back and posting. 3

 **Lucy P.O.V**

We'd taken a lot more jobs recently, trying to stay away from the guild, after they'd heard about our argument at the James brothers house, they'd teased us about it for what felt like months, in all honesty it had only been a few weeks. Our constant missions had racked us up quite a lot of money, close to a million jewel each, even the simpler S Class jobs really paid off. Rather than saving it like a lot of sensible mages, we all decided we wanted to spend it on something. Accommodation made no sense as we already had some, while Gajeel had an enormous appetite I wasn't sure even he could manage about three million jewel worth of food and we didn't really need any weaponry or magical items, so we left with no clue what to buy, just the urge to spend the money.

Money really was an odd thing to have, when you had it you had the constant urge to rid yourself of it and when you had no money you'd do anything for some.

I sat up from my bed and sighed, staring at the ceiling hadn't helped me to think of what I wanted to spend my money on.

Then my door swung open, revealing Juvia smiling deviously and holding something behind her back. It was then that I knew that Juvia wanted something and that she was going to get it one way or another.

"Lucy, Juvia had an idea of what we could spend our money on," Juvia said sweetly, I sighed not liking the direction our conversation was heading in.

"What is it?" I asked with a groan. Juvia pushed a brightly coloured holiday poster out in front of her.

"Juvia wants to see the sea and the sun and...and go on holiday," Juvia said, she looked brighter than I'd seen her in a while.

"Why? Don't we have jobs to do, plus Master would never let us go," I replied, I really didn't think Juvia had thought this through.

"Juvia has never been on holiday before and Master says it's alright, as long as we complete his request while we're there." Of course there was a catch, Master always had an ulterior motive or some sort of plan when he said we could do something nice.

"What do we have to do for Master?" I said.

"We just have to do some spying for him, in.. d..s...," Juvia whispered the last part so I couldn't hear what she said.

"Juvia who are we spying on and what was that last part?" I groaned again, Juvia was certainly not being forthcoming with information on our holiday.

"Fairy Tail, that's why Master wants us to go, they're going on some type of training camp at a really expensive resort, and Master wants us to go in...disguise" Spying on Fairy Tail and prancing around in fancy dress was not something I wanted to do...at all.

"What you are saying is...you want me to watch some dumbass fairies do stupid shit while dressed up like a nutjob wearing a fucking tutu!" I said, probably blowing things slightly out of proportion.

"No tutu's will be involved, but once we've gathered some dirt on Fairy Tail we can relax and have a nice holiday," Juvia said sweetly, but the look on her face said that she was not really in the mood to face rejection and I supposed that some time in the sun wouldn't be so bad. Then a thought struck me.

"How are we going to get Gajeel to agree to us blowing our money on a holiday to spy on Fairy Tail?" I asked. Juvia shrugged her shoulders. We went downstairs in an attempt to find out.

"No way am I going along with this shit!" Gajeel shouted.

"Pleeeeease Gajeel," Juvia and I said in unison, pleading as we'd been doing for the past ten minutes.

"I'll do the dishes, wash your clothes and be your sparring partner for a month," I begged.

"Why do you want to go so bad anyway, Juvia I get, but you Bunny girl, I don't get," Gajeel said.

"I think we deserve a break, even if it is still tecnically still a job, I mean we've been in this guild for almost six months and we haven't had even a day without a job, plus I want to sunbathe,' I said. Gajeel sighed, I could feel him trying to weigh up his options.

"Fine," he said, finally conceding, "Now what are you gonna dress me up as," Gajeel grumbled. Juvia smiled deviously, Gajeel just growled at her in response.

~ Later that day ~

How hair dye was supposed to be applied I was unsure, I thought I'd done a fairly good job however the dye covering the sink said otherwise. Why did Cancer pick today to go on holiday...My hair had been rinsed and dried as had Juvia's, Gajeel said 'come near me with one of those things and I'll kill you' so only Juvia and I had dyed our hair. The only reason I'd led my hair be dyed was because Juvia had insisted we'd just redye our hair back to its regular colour when we returned, although the black was kind of growing on me. Since we were going under the guise of siblings going on holiday, we'd dyed our hair black to match Gajeels since he wouldn't dye his.

"Lucy!" Juvia said excitedly, she was holding a pair of scissors. Good God, that was not going to happen.

"Not happening," I said bluntly.

"Same here," Gajeel said in agreement. Juvias' eyes started to well with tears...wait if she cried there'd be a flood. I gritted my teeth, my hair had grown to below my hips after years of not being cut, I'd grown to like it being so long but if it was a choice between getting a haircut and drowning in Juvias' tears, I'd choose the first option.

"Fine you can cut it," I grumbled. Juvia beamed.

"How much do you want off?" Juvia said, as though she was playing a game of hairdressers or house, like some of the children in the village.

"Cut it short, then Bunny girl won't spend so much time brushing it in the morning," Gajeel said. I glared at him.

"I can just get Cancer to grow it back," I replied with a smirk.

"Well then Bunny girl, what's the problem with letting Rain woman have some fun, if your spirit can just fix anything?" Gajeel said.

"Fine!" I shouted, "Juvia, cut it short!" I said. With that Juvia started snipping away with a childlike glee, I lost a lot of hair. From what I could feel Juvia had cut it to just below my jaw, it felt pretty even to me as well but since there was no mirror in the bathroom I couldn't tell.

"Yikes Bunny girl, you look nothing like you now," Gajeel said with a laugh.

"That's the point, dumbass," I growled, "I'll be back to normal once this is over," Gajeel just laughed again.

I stood up and tried to dust myself off as best as I could, trying to get any hair that had fallen down my top out before I started to itch.

"What does Lucy want to smell like, Juvia has three," Juvia said, she really just seemed excited to be able to dress up although since she hadn't had much of a childhood I couldn't really blame her for wanting to have some fun, after all we weren't yet adults.

"I don't mind Juvia, you choose," I said with a smile. Juvia handed me a bottle labelled 'Mint Essential Oil', we were really going all out for Masters spying mission, new hair, scents and everything.

"Juvia will be... jasmine and Gajeel can be... lavender," Juvia said handing Gajeel a violet bottle.

"Are you kidding," Gajeel groaned, it wasn't really panning out to be his day. I managed to hold back my laughter, thankfully, if I'd laughed then, he'd probably have tried to break my nose. I then proceeded to dab the strong scented oil in various patches across my body. While staring at Gajeel as if daring him to do the same. Eventually he did, as we had no other choice, we had nothing else to hide our scents with.

Gajeel was gagging the entire time we dabbed the oil on our skin, I think it might have been a bit too strong. Once we were done he sighed in relief.

"Are we done yet?" Gajeel moaned, "I don't think any of those damn fairies are going to recognise us,"

"Better to be safe than sorry," I said, I mainly just wanted to see him suffer a bit more. After a while we'd ended up with matching black hair and matching blue eyes. Juvia might have gone a bit overboard with her shopping, but we looked the most related we ever had. Although the contacts felt very odd, it'd taken us a good ten minutes to figure out how to put them in, resulting in a lot of sore, red eyes. Although seeing Gajeel struggle with a tiny contact lens had provided the comic relief I'd signed up for.

"Time to catch the train!" I said with an evil laugh.

"After all that, now we have to travel on that monstrosity," Gajeel groaned. Juvia joined in my laughter.

"Juvia thinks we should get going right now," Juvia giggled.

"Oh Juvia before we leave, have you got down speaking in the first person, we don't need the fairies picking up on anything," I said.

"I have, I still hate it though," Juvia said through gritted teeth. Before grabbing our hands and dragging us downstairs towards the main hall. I managed to grab our bags before Juvia dragged us out of the guild and towards the train station. Yay, holiday!? I wasn't too sure.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author Note:** I was wondering if there were any relationships that you wanted to happen in this story or if there shouldn't be any romance in the story at all, if you have any ideas could you leave them in the reviews or something like that, thank you.

 **Chapter** **5**

 **Lucy P.O.V **

When we got to the train station we collapsed on a bench in a heap. Eventually we stopped panting and looked at the train times, one was due in five minutes, yes, finally no delays or...

 _Ding Dong_ , shit, we were screwed, _"We are sorry to announce that the 1:25 East Fiorian Railway Service, to Kirana Coast has been delayed by thirty minutes, we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to your journey,"_

"Are you kidding, do trains just have something against us," I groaned. Juvia nodded in agreement, while Gajeel just curled up on the bench. We had half an hour so I might as catch up on some beauty sleep that I had missed out on over the weeks. I sat on the bench nestling into the corner.

"Juvia, can you watch for the train," I asked. Juvia sat in between me and Gajeel and nodded. I shut my eyes and after a while drifted off. I awoke to Gajeel hitting me repeatedly over the head.

"What the hell!?" I shouted.

"Train's here and Rain woman couldn't wake you up," Gajeel stated simply. I scrambled to my feet in response.

We boarded the train and slumped into an empty carriage. There was no way we'd end up having to share with fairies again, the train was practically empty for some reason...that was actually kind of suspicious but there was no time to dwell on it. The train set off from the station quite quickly and for some reason didn't stop at any stations, something was wrong.

"Juvia, why has nobody got on yet?" I asked. Juvia looked puzzled momentarily.

"Juvia hadn't noticed but now Lucy mentions it, Juvia thinks we're the only ones on the train. Juvia made sure we were getting the same train as Fairy Tail to keep better track of the from the very beginning," Juvia said.

"People must have just wanted to avoid getting the same train as the fairies," Gajeel muttered before rolling over and trying to fall asleep and not have to deal with his motion sickness. I nodded in agreement and felt my eyes starting to flutter shut as I watched the world blur by.

The train suddenly jolted, coming to a sudden screeching halt. A chill set over us, something was wrong. Then I heard something. Footsteps hammering across the roof of the train. Had we been hijacked?

I looked to Gajeel and Juvia, both peeved at having been awoken. I pointed to the ceiling and pressed a finger to my lips, they nodded in response. Someone had definitely hijacked us and there was only one outcome in this situation, we had to fight lest be captured, lose our opportunity to spy on Fairy Tail and possibly die.

We stood and slid open our compartment door as quietly as possible, it seemed to make an awful amount of noise in the eerie silence that had settled over an already quiet train. Once the door was open we crept towards the front of the train, that was most likely where the hijackers would be and if they weren't we could at least try to get the train moving again or find the driver.

We were slow moving but eventually managed to make it to the front of the train. The floor seemed to creak with each step we took, I was almost certain they would hear us. All of us huddled in to the corner and tried to come up with a plan.

"What do they want?" I whispered softly. Gajeel pointed to his ears.

"Fairy Tail," He whispered. He'd heard them talking. If they wanted Fairy Tail they were going to have to start the train again, they were a stop too early for Magnolia.

"Juvia has a plan," Juvia whispered, staring at the floor in a way that was far from reassuring.

"Don't sound good," Gajeel muttered.

"You won't like it," Juvia whispered.

"Just spit it out," I grumbled. Juvia took a deep breath before continuing.

"If we hide on the roof we can warn Fairy Tail of the hijackers," Juvia whispered. Gajeel looked annoyed at this prospect, like me he'd probably been looking forward to watching fairies get beaten up, I just had the manners to keep annoyance concealed, some people! Juvia, seeing Gajeel's face continued.

"It'll help with our mission, we'll gain their trust, have a reason to get closer to them and..." Gajeel cut Juvia off mid sentence.

"We won't be able to fight though, we'll be helpless," Gajeel growled as softly as he could. Then I realised something.

"That's exactly what we want them to think, that we could never hurt them," I whispered while grinning at Juvia. She could sometimes be smarter than we gave her credit for. I looked around for a window. There was one a little to our left.

I pointed to it and Juvia opened it and we headed onto the side. There was a small groove where we could catch our feet and a bar a little above our heads that I could reach by standing on my tiptoes. I clamped my hands around it and tried to haul myself onto it. My first attempt failed but on my second I managed to get enough momentum to swing my legs on to the bar. Gajeel and Juvia crouched next to me, having been more successful in their attempts to get up. Gajeel peeked up onto the roof. He shook his head and gestured for us to follow him up, it was unsurprisingly unoccupied. They clearly needed to take the fairies by surprise.

"Guess we get to go cloud gazing while we wait for the train to start," I laughed, pointing at a cloud that looked like a cross between a giraffe and an elephant. The breeze started to pick up a little and I shivered, my coat was in my suitacase...which I'd left in the carriage, our luggage all our things, if they saw it they might come looking for us and then...

A hand was waved in front of my face. "Bunny girl, you're spacing out and look terrified," Gajeel commented, still waving his hand right in front of my face, which I smacked away.

"What's the matter Lucy?" Juvia said.

"We left our luggage in the carriage, what if they find it?" I said.

"We'll just have to hope they don't then," Juvia whispered.

"Or be prepared to finally have a decent fight," Gajeel smiled, I was almost certain the lack of violence was having a serious effect on him, he'd smiled for no reason.

I had no time to dwell on things, the train jolted to a jerky start forcing me to cling on to the roof with all I had. I looked over to Juvia who gave me a reassuring smile and then Gajeel who...

"I hate you," I growled, I'd liked this outfit too.

"Juvia can help," Juvia squeaked in a panic. I was overwhelmed in what I was almost certain was a tsunami. Now I was just soaking wet and...God I stank. What a great start to our mission.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6**

 **Lucy P.O.V**

The wind whipped my hair back as the train shot through the blurred countryside at a speed that I was pretty sure was against the law and the speed a train can actually go at. My nose was bombarded with the scent of vomit, Juvia clearly hadn't cast the right spell, she normally could get us smelling pretty normal after most missions. Now there was nothing much she could do as we were all clinging to the train as it sped up, faster, faster, faster. Even I was starting to feel nauseous, and Gajeel was turning green.

After a few minutes the train began to slow to a normal speed. "I think we're getting close to Magnolia," I said, I hoped my voice had been picked up over the screeching of the wheels as the train slowed. Gajeel and Juvia nodded. I saw the station in the distance, a sea of bright colours, there sure were a lot of fairies. I began to shuffle towards the edge of the train, now able to move after the train slowed. I beckoned for Gajeel and Juvia to follow me. They did, albeit slowly and reluctantly.

I swung my legs over the edge of the train and grabbed a bar near me, taking a moment to look at my sore, paint covered hands.

"Lucy, Juvia wonders what we should say to the fairies," Juvia said softly while staring at the fluffy clouds, some of which were very odd shapes.

"Definitely not 'Juvia'," Gajeel said in what I assumed to be an impression of Juvia, still tinged green and still being an ass.

"Thank you for your input," I said as passive aggressively as I could manage, was that really necessary.

" _I_ also wonder if we should just leave Gajeel tied to the train forever," Juvia glared at Gajeel, shutting him up pretty effectively. We'd already established that the third person thing was a touchy subject sometime ago, maybe Gajeel just had a death wish.

Before things could escalate I saw that the station was getting pretty close.

"We're almost there," I said. We were almost slowed to a halt now, so close I could pick out each fairies face. Whistles were blown, chaos insued and we took that as our cue to slide onto the platform, right in front of the fairies. Their eyes all turned to us.

"Um...Hi...J...our," Was Juvia seriously taking the lead speaking, "train was kinda...hijacked and the hijackers kinda want to fight you a bit, at least we think so," Why did I never help her with people skills, mine used to be amazing, they'd gone down hill a bit after meeting Gajeel but they were still better than whatever Juvia was doing, were they normally that bad, no she normally just hated strangers. Also why was she staring creepily at one of them, was I going to have to give her the talk...The fairies seemed a little confused after what Juvia said so I decided to simplify it for them.

"The train was hijacked, the hijackers want to ambush you, we came to warn you," I said simply. I looked for reactions the red head we'd seen on a train before looked pissed as did a white haired girl standing next to her. The pink haired one looked excited and raring to go, the stripper was trying to kill him, another group looked ready to destroy humanity and a little blunette looked scared out of her mind.

"Well then," the white haired man I believed to be the master of the fairies said, "We must simply ambush them first," The fairies all seemed to gain an inhuman amount of enthusiasm from just a few words from this man, it was odd and for some reason made me dislike them even more. They all whispered amongst themselves, creating some sort of quick plan of action, although before they could finish the trains were ready to be boarded. They embarked looking ready to fight, they also looked as though they would win the fight.

I wanted to kick some ass but we had a mission and a plan, I wasn't about to mess that up and suffer punishment.

I looked at Gajeel and Juvia, Juvia, fortunately, seemed to back to normal and Gajeel was still himself, unfortunately.

"Should we get on board?" I asked.

"Sure," Gajeel grunted.

"Ju..I think we should as well," Juvia said, the first person thing was now starting to make me more uncomfortable than her normal way of speaking.

We boarded cautiously, getting captured would mean we'd have to be...rescued, since we wanted to look as harmless as possible. Eventually we found our compartment, free of everything but our luggage. Slipping inside, we slouched into our seats and waited for the train to start so we could properly start our mission.

 **Erza P.O.V (I switched P.O.V woo!)**

The train felt eerie, we were walking down a long, dark hallway in silence, I was waiting for someone to jump out us, they didnt. However I did hear voices, shouting, they must've found out we'd been prewarned. I beckoned to Natsu and Gray, we'd been put in charge of searching the front of the train and Mira had to check carriages, I couldn't wait to rub that in.

Natsu looked ready to charge in and set the train on fire and Gray had once again lost his shirt. I wanted to tell them we needed to assess the situation and take them by surprise. However we were so close our the hijackers would hear me. So I just put a finger to my lips and grabbed Natsu's collar.

Their shouts grew louder and closer so I decided that it was now or never I let go of Natsu, not before giving him a glare that told him what would happen if he went too overboard. I then summoned my sword and gave Gray the go ahead.

There were five of them, they were all very tall and wore black robes, so we couldn't see there faces. They were crowding around a...summoning circle of sorts, I wasn't too sure, but I had a feeling that our chances of winning would decrease dramatically if they finished their ritual. I was about to signal for attack when Natsu and Gray began, fire and ice hit them at an alarming speed, certainly taking them by surprise.

I began to attack as well, the cloaked figures seemed to know they were at a disadvantage, then they just...vanished? Teleportation, perhaps? But that meant they could come back at any time, probably with more allies.

Natsu looked pleased with himself and then he and Gray started fighting, I was planning to break them up but I was absorbed in thought.

That wasn't the last we were going to be seeing of them, I was almost certain of that and I also knew that when we met who or whatever they were trying to summon it was not going to be an easy or straightforward fight. Maybe Levy could figure out what the circle they'd left behind meant, she was smart although she was also rather shy.

Natsu and Gray were growing to loud for me to think straight. I planned to consult with Master, right after I smashed their heads together.

 **Lucy P.O.V**

Eventually the train started so they'd obviously defeated the enemy, I wanted to see what had happened but leaving the compartment now would look extremely suspicious and hinder our mission. So I just leant my forehead against the cool glass of the window and sighed. I looked up to make conversation when Gajeel cut me off.

"Fairies incoming," He inhaled, "Same ones from last time I think," he said with a groan before curling up in the corner and settling down to sleep. I sighed and Juvia tensed up.

"They might be annoying but you can't kick them out," I said softly. She glared at me in response, Juvia hadn't changed her view on strangers in our space.

I once again leant against the window. Their voices grew louder, they were almost hear, if we were lucky maybe they' leave...

The door opened and the fairies enterered, sitting opposite us, so no such luck there. There were the three from last time and their master.

"On behalf of Fairy Tail we'd like to thank you for pre warning us in regards to the situation and we shall handle the situation," the master said.

"You're welcome, we were glad to be of service, thank you for what you have done," I said as sweetly as I could, tapping into the social etiquette and manners lessons that had been drilled into me as a child, I almost vomited hearing those words coming from my mouth. I had to remind myself that it was all for the mission and the sunbathing that came with it. The fairies smiled before falling into small talk with us and then just talking amongst themselves.

I felt myself start to nod off, the motion of the train, the surprise of being hijacked, helping fairies and having to be polite to fairies had been too tiring. This mission was going to be something either very satisfying or something I'd regret for the rest of my life.


	8. Discontinuing But Have A Chapter Anyway

**Chapter 7**

 **Lucy P.O.V**

 **Author Note:** DISCONTINUING! Sorry to say but there has been a reason for me dropping off the face of the earth. In short my health has deteriorated and doctors suspect I have some sort of chronic pain disorder or autoimmune condition, they really haven't told me much so I'm in a lot of pain and haven't been in a state to do much at all. I can't continue this story, not that I've been doing much with it but honestly if anybody wants to adopt the fic or adapt the premises please feel free to do so. Here is the majority of a chapter that I haven't quite finished because I'm already in agony from typing this much. I'm sorry to disappoint but thank you for reading. I may write other fics in the future when I'm given more heavy duty pain killers and I'm on better meds. Xoxo

After I woke up due to an obnoxiously loud announcement over the intercom we all clambered out of the train one by one, some of us greener than others. I was beginning to notice how often I fell asleep on trains, it wasn't a great decision to leave yourself so vunerable in a public or open area, but the gentle mention of the vehicle paired with the overwhelming exhaustion I felt whenever I got on one, normally due to having just completed a mission or taking part in any other ridiculous activities that resulted in a large amount of physical exertion.

I looked around the station, it was a lot more welcoming and colourful than the one back at home. Flowers hung in baskets from the ceiling, swinging gently from side to side, everything was coated with unchipped paint in bright colours, it felt like so long since I'd been exposed to such vivid colours, I felt like the brightness should have been a nauseating attack on me but instead I found it just about bearable because all the colours went together and it wasn't a contrasting colours fest. The breeze was warm and lazy, it wrapped around me in a blanket, bringing with it the scent of summer flowers and freshly baked bread, which caused my mouth to start to water.

Stood beside me, Juvia was glowing. Her eyes even when she was happy, never had shone as much as they did in that moment. I followed her gaze, on the horizon was the resort we were to stay at. An immense wooden building, left its mark on the skyline, I could just about make out its general shape and the beauty of it. Below the cliffs it proudly stood upon, a twisting stretch of golden sand lay, shimmering water grazing its edge, turquoise, sapphire and aquamarine melted into each other. I strained my eyes to try and make out more of what Juvia was looking at but eventually gave up.

Juvia looked ready to break into a run towards the resort so I elbowed her in the ribs, as lightly as I could manage, I was probably going to have to try and be the level headed, polite and mature one for the mission, I thought, so fun was out of the question. I was trying to calculate exactly how I was going to carry the mission out. I must have been spacing out for a while because I felt a familiar hand punch the top of my head.

Gajeel looked like he was trying really hard not to laugh at me and my most probably very pissed off expression. I really wanted to punch him back and fight, but I then realised Fairy Tail was standing a few feet from us, arguing over directions and making a scene of their own.

I momentarily forgot my anger and let a small laugh escape from me, they were almost as bad as the three of us. Juvia had appeared to have stopped staring intently at the resort as she too was laughing at the antics of Fairy Tail, they were truly a raucous guild. Even Gajeel, as I glanced up was smiling a slight amount.

A moment passed and I pulled my eyes from the commotion and grabbed Gajeel and Juvia's hands dragging them towards the path that I saw leading to the resort.

However I felt a tug on my wrist as Juvia glared at me and pointed to a different path.

"Lucy, it's that way," Juvia hissed out.

"I can see the path, it's clearly that way!" I growled.

"Really? What happened the last time we tried to follow your directions!?"

"Come on, I thought you were over that!"

Gajeel began to laugh behind us, he always seemed to enjoy our fights.

"Oh don't you start again!" Juvia said menacingly.

I groaned softly, knowing that people would start staring if I didn't end this.

"Fine Juvia, we'll go your way and when it's wrong we'll come back and go mine," I said. Juvia's only reply was a sweet smile before she started to walk off with a spring in her step. Gajeel and I followed Juvia.

Fifteen minutes later we arrived in front of the resort...Juvia looked very smug and I was very embarrassed, I had been so sure I was right as well.

The resort up close was less grand than what I had been expecting, it was enormous, indeed, and seemed to be made of very beautiful wood, it was smooth in most areas except for the accents which were rough, unsanded logs and it had a rooftop garden with many exotic plants that I couldn't name, yet the lack of jewel encrusted windowsills, gorgeous sculptures, paintings and lavish silk draperies that I had become so accustomed to through the 'holidays' I took with my father, meant the resort couldn't meet my impossibly high expectations. For that I resented myself slightly, that I expected from my holidays everything I had chosen to leave behind, showed that part of me still wanted that, that part of me still clung to that, and I loathed it.

A hand waving in front of my face brought me back to reality.

"It's pretty cool, isn't it?" Gajeel said with a smile, "Rain woman is still zoned out over it," he nodded towards a bemused Juvia, who was trying to take it all in at once, eyes flitting from place to place across the building and landscape.

"Yeah it is," I said, trying to enthuse myself, while pushing my more negative thoughts to the back of my mind. My half assed response didn't seem to convince Gajeel and I was sure I was going to be pressed further as soon as we got to our room but Gajeel's focus shifted to the more immediate problem of Juvia. Who was still entranced in the shadow of the building and so Gajeel began to try and drag her inside before she started to become an issue for people trying to get in and out of the building.

As we entered I immediately caught sight of a brightly coloured and in my opinion, slightly tacky, reception desk with an equally bright and happy looking receptionist, seated behind it to match.

Juvia began to come to her senses and flushed in embarrassment at having behaved in such an odd way. I simply giggled in response, our small fight having been all but forgotten, that was how things normally worked between the three of us, anything said or done in anger was normally forgiven and forgotten as we were more important to each other, at the end of the day, than the petty things we enjoyed arguing about.

I plastered on a smile, that I could only hope reached my eyes, and approached the desk. The blonde haired receptionist beamed at me as it became apparent that I was intending to check in, something about the way she looked seemed familiar though I couldn't quite place it. Quickly glancing behind me, I said that Gajeel and Juvia had no intention of following me. I desperately tried to make eye contact with them but they seemed to be very engaged in conversation about the weather. In that moment I wished that I hadn't told them how to ignore people without seeming rude, what had seemed like a piece of information that would be fun to share at that time was now being thrown back in my face.

"How may I help you? Have you booked a room? Can I check you in?" Questions were thrown at me like projectiles by the chirpy woman, upon closer inspection she seemed very tired yet an aggressively pleasant aura continued to radiate from her, I made a note that I never wanted to end up like that. Then it dawned on me, Bubbles, blonde bunches, enormous blue eyes and a blue mini dress, the receptionist was definitely Bubbles.

"Room 142 is booked for me and my siblings I believe, under the name..." I paused for a split second trying to remember the name we had booked a room under, "Lores,"

We'd been very specific with the choosing of our room, we were a few doors down from the main bulk of Fairy Tail but had a balcony close enough to be able to listen to them and possibly search their rooms if we felt it necessary.

"Yep, right there," Bubbles said, her finger hovering above the name on a list next to her. She reached out grabbing the key for the room and pausing for a moment. She looked as though she wanted to interrogate me some more but her exhaustion seemed to prompt her against that.

The silver key was deposited with a clunk onto the yellow hued wood of the desk. Bubbles motioned for me to take it, before turning to the next group of people with a beam. Picking the key up a shiver coarsed through me at how unfamiliar the cold metal felt, I'd grown so used to the warmth of my spirits, that the key to our room felt dead in comparison. My spirits pulsed comfortingly from a small leather satchel at my hip where I'd hidden them. I couldn't bear to have them off of my person so putting them in a satchel was the most hidden they probably would ever be.

The bright orange feathers of the reception desks' decor brushed my leg making me start slightly and grimace as I looked back at the atrocious colour coordination of the desk. Gajeel and Juvia seemed to have noticed as well because Gajeel was making a range of gestures to describe it and Juvia was giggling softly while watching. I walked over them quickly, hoping to sort everything out as soon as possible so I'd at least have a bit of time to sunbathe.

"Bubbles checked us in so we can get settled into our room," I said, noting the confusion that flitted across their faces.

My hand closed around the rough fabric handle of my bag, before I hoisted it up onto my shoulder, I felt slightly sorry for Gajeel who seemed to have dragged all our luggage to the resort while Juvia and I bickered. Gajeel and Juvia did the same before we all headed towards the stairs labelled 120-170. Thank God for the signs, I could finally lead the way and not end up getting us all lost.

The hallways were straight, well lit and labelled well so we promptly arrived at our room. A silver handled white door greeted us, into which our key fitted and it swung open, silently.

Looking into the room, I thanked the designers that the rooms were well coordinated and contained more neutral tones to balance everything out. Gajeel pushed me inside while dragging Juvia in behind him.

I flopped back onto the bed closest to the balcony and its large glass doors, claiming it. Each of the beds had soft, white bedsheets with matching silk pillowcases and grey blue blankets folded at their feet. As well as being so much comfier than any of ours at home. Blowing all our money on this wasn't turning out to be so bad after all.

After a moment, I heard two more thumps from the other beds being claimed and a sigh from Juvia. We lay there in silence until I realised that we were actually on a mission and weren't just supposed to be enjoying ourselves.

"How do we want to start then?" I said softly.

"Start what?" Gajeel groaned, rolling over onto his side.

"Our mission," I stated. Juvia wiggled up into a sitting position and I followed suit.

"Should we really be talking about it here, with..." Juvia gestured to the rooms near us.

"They aren't here yet so what does it matter," Juvia quirked an eyebrow at my words.

"We were ahead of them coming here and we would've heard them arriving," I said. Juvia seemed to see the logic in my words and started to help map out our plans.

"We've already started to gain their trust haven't we?" Juvia said. I nodded in response, "We need to try and build it up more, however," She continued.


End file.
